ted with the
pole-star. "The constellation Drakon is Phoenician=Kanaanite in origin and
represented primarily the nakkasch qodmun (old serpent)=the guardian of
the stars (golden apples) which hang from the pole tree. It is called the
crooked serpent=nakkasch in Job XXVI:13 ..." (_op. cit._, p. 29). I
further cite Mr. Brown's authority for the fact that in Phoenicia A.D.,
1200, the name for Ursa Major was Dubkabir and for Ursa Minor, Dub.

Before returning to the Euphratean valley let us note some facts
concerning the ancient religion of

PERSIA.

The swastika is found in Persia as well as a sacred mountain, the Elburl.
The supreme divinity was the invisible Ahuramazda, the "creator of heaven
and earth," who was associated with "eternal light" and appears to be
identical with the ancient Aryan god of light, Mithra, the watcher and
ruler of the world, who was worshipped under the form of fire.

Mithra and Ahuramazda alike are associated with six spirits named the
Amesha-zpenta, who are said, in the first case, to be personifications of
the sun, moon, fire, earth, water and air, and in the second, of certain
qualities of the supreme power, namely, law, power, goodness, piety,
health and immortality, abstract conceptions which evidently pertain to a
more advanced intellectual stage. The septarchy thus formed by Mithra and
his Amesha appears to assign the Middle to him and to associate the sun
with the day, heaven, light and the Above, the moon with the night and
darkness and the Below, and the elements with the Four Quarters. It is
suggestive of four-fold rule and power to find, on a bas-relief found at
the ancient holy city Pasargada, the Persian king Cyrus represented with
four wings and a diadem with two uraeus serpents like that of Egyptian
kings.

The most ancient Persian monarch is said to have been Haha-manis or
Akhamanis, who was termed "the king of Anshan." Subsequent kings bore the
title of Hakhamanisija, as for instance, Cyrus and Darius I (520-486
B.C.). At the present day, the title Charkan is that employed to designate
the Shah, whereas goda or khoda signifies lord, master, prince or ruler.

In a bas-relief published by Spamer, whose work of reference will be
referred to again later on, Darius is represented as standing under the
image of Ahuramazda, the supreme deity, who, like the Assyrian god Assur,
is figured as a king wearing the royal cap, and issuing from the centre of
a winged ring or circlet. In